This is kind of an old report but will give a little bit of information about Old Hickory lake and a few trips I had with a lady Professional Bass Angler Janet Parker.
I have been a bass angler for many years and I have enjoyed
being a competitor in tournaments all over the south east
over the years but my favorite lake has always been Old Hickory
and I consider it my home lake. I quit competing in 2011 as
my health just would no longer allow it. I do want to share 1
experience with folks here that some may find interesting. I
have never claimed to be a guide and have never told anyone
that I am one. Some years back around 2012 I think I got a
phone call from a young lady and she asked me if I would do
a guide trip for her. I told her I was not a guide and she said
I know but you are a bass fisherman and you come highly
recomended as the person I need to learn about Old Hickory
according to everyone I have spoke to around here. She said
I promise I will pay you well. I told her to give me a few minutes
and I would call her back and I ask her name and she said Janet
Parker and I compete in the WBA.
I called her back and told her to meet me at Bull Creek Boat ramp
in the morning about 6AM. She was there when I arrived. I had 3 rods
and a Walmart bag of assorted baits. No mistaking where she was.
He wrapped boat stood out in the rest of the boats. The trip began
witha run of about a 1/2 mile up in the river to a ledge I knew was
holding some fish. She got up front and I got on the back of the boat
and she watched to see what rod I picked up and she picked up a rod
witha similar bait. I have a Stick bait tied on and she had a Senko and
we both casted in same direction. I stuck a 3 lb fish boated it and turned
it loose. In 5 casts I had caught 4 fish and she had not got a bite. Finally
she turned to me and ask me what kind of bait I was using and I said
one of mine. She ask me if she could borrow one and I said no but I will
give you a couple. I pitched few to the front deck and told her she
would have to add a 3/16th bullet weight because my baits won't sink
on their own so she did and on her first cast after watching how I fished
the bait she caught one about 4 lbs.
That 1st day we caught probably 30 fish with best 5 going 15 to 18 pounds.
By the end of the day I was about out of baits because all she wanted to use
was mine. She did break off 2 fish that were big but she had not retied
either after catching a few fish. I will try and post a few pictures of her fish
but not sure if I know how to do it here. I have a bunch more but not going to use
anmore bandwith to post them.
The fish in my avatar is one that was taken on one of those days. If I am over stepping my bounds with my posts I hope the moderators will tell me please.
emoLaugh <font size="2">Yea, there are fish in the lake. I think during that week I spent with Janet Parker while putting a tournament pattern together we probably fished from <font size="2">6AM to 2 PM which was tournament hours we probably caught 30 to 40 bass a day and each day best 5 would weigh about 15-20 lbs. Everyday included at leastone 6+ lb kicker and the one I am holding in Avatar was right at 8 lbs. She told me she had been fishing the WBA for 3 years and had never made cut to the second day and on the first day of the tournament she was in 1st place and made the cut with 15+ to the second day. She blew the second day because she was very nieave and let a few other ladies drop a few bugs in her ear about catching some good fish down towards the dam and she was boat 1 on second day and she took off down stream towards the dam and it took her about 10 minutes to realize she was the only boat down there. By the time she got back up in the river area there was a boat on everyone of her places. She apologized to me for being so stupid and I told her that I hope she learned something from this and she did. She went down to the Red River in Louisiana and went wire to wire and won it. She reordered more of my baits. emoDance </font></font></p>
Fun story. My wifes parents live in smyra and about 6 min. from percy priest. We always say we are going to Old Hickory but my father in law always just says it is the toughest lake to fish. I figured it fished just like all the other TN river river systems. I do love coming up to fish priest for sure. It's just hard to catch anything over 5lbs there!
<font size="2">I have been there also when it comes to my son in law (Tommy) He hates Old Hickory cause everytime we go there I catch a lot more fish than he does so he wants to night fish on Percy Priest lake. Thing is I catch more fish than he does on Priest too. Difference is we catch Smallmouths on Priest Lake and he loves catching them and so do I. I have about three spots on Percy Priest lake that about 11PM on a moon lit night We can normally go and catch about 10 or 12 nice Smallmouths, some in the 5-7 lb range which is a handfulto get in the net. We have netted a lot of them in the air when they jump next to the boat. If ya'll ever fish it at night you need to T-Rig a Green Pumpkin Tube and dip the tails in blue dip-n-dye and try to use 2.5 inch tubes. I don't know where you launch from but if your going up stream and go under the Hopsin Pike Bridge when you make that left turn towards Long Hunter Launch ramp there are some boulders on the left side just under the water and you can bag some big smallies right there. Also when you come under the bridge there is an Island directly in front of you. If you look at amap there is a very long rock point coming off that Island pointing almost down stream. Set out in 30 foot water and throw those tubes up on the point and let them fall off the drop and hold on tight to your rod. Just a few tips you might share with your Father in law........ emoApplause </font>
Hey I appreciate that more than you know!! I have always heard of guys catching really big ones at night and one of the main reasons we always go to priest is for that chance to catch those brown fish. We fish a lot around the stewarts creek, fate sanders, and up in to west fork (more largemouth areas I know but we have caught some really nice smallies as long as we are on the main lake). Here lately we have been going up towards Hopsin pike bridge and I am trying to teach my father in law how to fish deeper since he bought a 12 inch depth finder and still just wants to fish in 5 ft or less!! haha He is kinda scared to fish at night b/c he heard a story of a guy that is an engineer with him at CSX whose buddy got robbed late one night leaving hamilton creek. I think we would be fine if we put in at one of the marinas rather than the other ramps.
<font size="2">Well I can understand his concern regarding being robbed as it is on everyones minds these days. about 4 years ago andangler was shot and killed at the Mona boat ramp on Priest lake in broad daylight when he was going to get his trailer to take his boat out of the water. His daughter was in the boat waiting on him.When I launch I use Seven Points only because it is a well lit boat ramp plus I have a pair of headlights on my boat that will light up a football field and before I letTommy out on the dock to get the trailer I will sit out about 15 yards andpan all around the woods that surround the lot and then I scan any and all vehicles parked in the lot, especially the ones withou trailers hooked to them. There has been many times I will scan a car and keep the lights on it andin many cases the will start up and leave. When they do I scan the entire parking lot again. When Tommy stepsoff the boat onto the dock he removes his 9mm from it's holster and has it in his hands till he is in the vehicle. I also have my gun in my hand and standing in the boat watching his back.</font></p>
<font size="2">Now back to fishing. If your fishngStewarts Creek and the west fork I'm guessing your launching at Fate Sanders but could be wrong. I seldom if ever go up any farther than Long Hunter State Park launch ramp pocket. Reason being we arelooking for Smallies. I use to fish nght tournaments on Priest and won several of them and in those I did fish for both species. If your looking to pick up a few big largemouths you may want to fisharound the lower end of Pooles Knob Campgrounds pocket. Back years ago TWRA put down some Brush piles in that pocket and the Markers that were that are gone but the brush of parts of the brush might stil be there. Last tournament I competed in over there was night event beginning at 7PM and ending at Midnight and it was a single Big Fish Pot tournament which I won.47 points competed at 100.00 per boat and I had Tommy with me. He had one in the boat that weighed about 3.75 lbs and was hoping it would be big enough but I knew it would take something over 5 lbs to win. Time was running out and I told Tommy I had one more place to go and it was on the way back 4 Corners where the weigh in was. We could see the lights of 4 Corners when I set the boat down. I walked up and picked upa rod and he got on the back and glanced at the Eagle 320 and said the water in 80 feet deep and I made my cast with one of my 14 inch worms and let it drop until it landed on the first boulder on the bank. Pulled it 1 time and as it began to fall to the next boulder I saw my line jump and I set the hook in an 8.12 lblargemouth. Tommy netted the fishand released his fish. We waited till everyone else had weighed in. If my fish was beat I was not going to stress it out more by taking it to the scales. A 6.10 was leading so I let Tommy take it and weigh it in and it weighed 8.12 and Tommy collected the money and we took the fish back out the the channel and released it instead of dropping it off the dock at the marinalike others did. Tommy ask me how I knew that big fish would be there and I saidI didn't but I had caught big fish on those boulders before and most people don't know they are there when they look at the graphs and see 80+ foot water. At some point in time that cliff above that spot had caved in and piled up the boulders right against the bank with deep water on both sides of them. I had learned about them from a friend that use to scuba that area back many years ago and he marked the location of them on a Priest lake Map.</font></p>
<font size="2">You mentioned you are trying to get your Father In Law to fish deeper water. Actually your not fishing the deeper water. Your boat is setting in the deeper water off of the drops but your actually casting up in 5-15 foot water and bringing your baits to the drop off. Once the baits drop off and begin to go into the abyss of deep water, if you don't get hit pretty quick you reel in and make another cast. I will travel up on the point orledge and see if I mark fish on any of the drops. If I don't mark fish I go to the next one. Good Luck and hope you can get some big smallies on your next outting.</font></p>
